The world powers and Iran can agree on six principles:
• No nuclear weapon in the Middle East.
• A ban on production of plutonium and reprocessing in the Middle East.
• Stopping the production of highly enriched uranium, with no enrichment beyond five percent in the Middle East.
• No stockpiling beyond domestic needs for nuclear civilian use.
• Establishment of a regional or international consortium for producing nuclear fuel.
• Regional confidence-building and verification measures by creating a regional authority in charge of regulating nuclear development and verifying its peaceful nature in the region.
This would be the best path to reach the “comprehensive package” deal on the Iranian nuclear dilemma. The next six months of diplomacy will be decisive and the world powers and Iran should be open to pursuing an agenda of long-term co-operation. Iran’s nuclear deal has the potential to begin controlling fissile material in the Middle East and take meaningful steps toward a Middle East zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of mass destruction.
“Outlines of a compromise,” Hossein Mousavian, The Security Times, January 31, 2014.
